1. No surprise, I caught the winter flu bug floating around. My life is a series of illnesses it seems.

2. Happy Holidays! Happy New Year! I'm suddenly having post-holiday depression since my food/sugar high of the last few weeks has ended. And, of course, work is now an uphill battle mentally as it seems forever before holiday time again. You know what I still miss? Summer vacation.

He finds her in a meeting, in another city, in another life, and it scares him how little some things change.

She’s in profile, but he needs no more than a first glance to recognize her and his chest grows tight. He stands in the doorway, half in, half out, wonders about all the things they used to say and what words he eventually left her with. He had regret, he had a lot of things for a while, but he’s gotten better at forgiving the past.

He makes his choice and walks in, doesn’t hesitate until he’s standing in the aisle next to her and the closeness makes him weak.

She looks up as he sits beside her, and her intake of breath is audible. “John.”

“Hi Abby,” he says, has the urge to shrug helplessly because what are the odds? He struggles suddenly for words, lost in the fate of it all, in the way she’ll always look beautiful and broken. “I don’t really know what to say.”

“It’s been a long time.” Her voice is soft and warm. She shakes her head in disbelief, smiles in the way that makes him hurt. “How are you? Are you living here?”

He nods. “Yeah, I’m working at the Children’s Hospital.”

It occurs to him how circular his life has become as a doctor. She associates him with Africa, and he hasn’t thought about that time in years.

“I’m… good,” he says, runs a hand through his hair. “I’m better.”

She really looks at him then, searches his face with a little crinkle in her brow. Over time he eventually stopped thinking about her completely, but that frown, that look – that was the last thing to go.

“How about you?” he asks. “Where are you working?”

She shrugs at the question, already dismissing the positive. “I’m an attending over at St. Luke’s.”

“That’s great, Abby.” He wants to touch her arm to let her know he means it, but isn’t sure where he’d go from there.

She smiles. “Thanks.”

He realizes he is staring and lets his gaze drift to the front of the room, listens to the steps and confessions he’s heard a thousand times. He slipped once, swallowed a pill and was surprised when it went down bitter and hard.

Abby shifts beside him. “I have a son.”

His heart is loud and he thinks about how he almost married her, almost started a life with her. “What’s his name?”

“Joe,” she says, and her eyes lighten at something he doesn’t catch. “Joseph.”

He nods slowly, sees her empty ring finger; he used to be much better at dealing with the unexpected. Her smile is soft in understanding.

“It’s been a long time,” she says again, but this time she means something different. She touches his leg, an apology in the light pressure though she says nothing. He knows everyone has always been good at letting her go.

The meeting drags on, longer and longer until finally Abby moves and grabs her coat. She hesitates before she stands, looks over at him. “I have to go.”

“Joseph?” he guesses.

“It’s almost his bedtime.”

He thinks about offering her a ride or giving her his phone number, all the little insanities that used to keep him preoccupied for months. In the end, he ignores it all and smiles. “It was good to see you, Abby.”

“Yeah,” she says. “You too.”

Her coat is a deep blue and he watches as she shrugs into it, hair loose and falling in front of her face. She’s a brunette again and the color suits her.

“I’ll see you around, Carter.” She pauses next to the chair, smiles goodbye.

And he says it without thinking. “Do you know Tops Coffee on Market?”

He continues before she asks questions, everything between them always in the timing.

“Great breakfasts,” he explains. “I’m there a lot.”

She puts her hands in her pockets, gives a little half-shrug that he knows means more than how it looks. “Okay.”

And I can't believe I wrote future!Carby. With Joseph and everything. Perhaps it is perverse of me to write about Luka and Abby being apart, but hell, there's nothing right about that combination (and there never was) and OMG CARBY I HATE YOU WELLS

They're actually airing season 1 on Dutch tv at the moment, YAY! :-)I've been downloading season 2 (not sure I got every ep, I've been sloppy this fall), but I'm still watching season 1 :-)And I found all of season 1 on one of the portable HDs I did bring with me from home! YAY! :-)I'm in the middle of reorganising my stuff, so I'd lost track of where everything is, but Bones is with me, baby ;-)And so I watched 3 eps, and one of them was the xmas epi, and OMG, how much do I love stoned Booth? ;-)Also, Bones and Booth in Hollywood is pure crack ;-)

Must order season 1 off of Amazon, especially since it's on sale atm :-)

Oh, and the trip to the Maldives has been postponed for a week or so. No word on the exact new date yet, so I'm hoping the torrents will keep for a while :-)It's no biggie, cos I'm not up to speed with the show anyway :-)

*poke* Didja get the package I sent? Sent it out the Friday before Christmas, I think. :)

And by the way, thank you for the shirts and the coffee! You rock! :) And to prove how awesome and excellent you really are and how well you know me, hehee, one of the shirts you gave me? I have it in blue, but debated getting it in green. I cackled when I saw it. :)

Oh! I meant to tell you... guess what totally arrived in the mail today. The post office package slip!! Apparently my post office is very behind, but I'm getting my roommate to go and pick up the gift tomorrow. *glee*

And ahaha! Dude! Okay, that's just too funny. LOL. I knew we had the same taste in shirts. ;)

HEE! You know, about six episodes in to my crazy marathon of this show, I had this vague recollection that you told me to watch it ages ago. *grins*

And it's AWESOME. Yes. Omg. And David is SO gung-ho about Brennan being The One for Booth that I feel, no matter how long it takes (provided the show isn't cancelled), that 'ship is gonna end well. And that's something I've been hesitant to enjoy since Carby BROKE MY SOUL. *cries*

Also? I totally agree with you on the Angela/Hodgins thing. I mean, I'm still fresh with the Booth/Brennan love seeing as I've been a fan of this show for, oh, two weeks... But I'm really enjoying the progression of Angela and Jack's relationship, the fact that he's hopelessly in love with her. Aw, it's all so sweet.